What is Going On?

There were just enough cushions to accommodate the three small pews in the southeast corner.

In the July 7 article we told you the church pew cushion project would probably be complete during September. But the seamstress in Stark had a cancellation, and when Terri started feeding groups of cushions to her, completion went much faster than planned.

Because of limited shop space Connie's Upholstery could only handle 8 to 10 cushions at a time; but she brought in a helper to speed things up. When they started altering cushions they kept Terri and her car moving.

As noted in the earlier article the small gap at the end of outside aisle pews will remain. Shorter center pews, at pillar locations, will have a similar gap. Thanks to Terri for overseeing the project; and to Connie's Upholstery in Stark for her great service. And special thanks to Father David and the Altar Society for backing the project.

​When a St. Francis parishioner noticed an ad on a Southeast Kansas sales site she saw potential for a church improvement project. Our Lady of Lourdes was doing a complete interior renovation and some items were being discarded — among those items were pew cushions.

A Stewardship Project Gets Underway.​St. Francis has looked at pew cushions in the past, but the $25,000 cost kept the project on a back burner. Curious about the advertisement, Terri Morrow made a call and then drove to Pittsburg to investigate. The cushions appeared to be in good condition, but Lourdes had included new cushions in their renovation plan.

The initial estimate of 50 cushions ended up being closer to 100.

​After checking with Father David and Altar Society President Elaine VanLeeuwen, she got a “GO” and called to make arrangements to pick them up.

There was a catch. Lourdes had a contractor and a group of parishioners ready to gut the interior of the church on Monday, May 15, and the cushions had to be picked up by 9:00 that morning or they would be hauled away. Terri rounded up a pickup truck, and some help, to go get what we thought would be “about fifty cushions.” That should be enough to fill the front pews-bay of St. Francis.

Part of Terri's Mountain of Cushions

We showed up at Lourdes on the 15th to discover that “about fifty” was closer to "one-hundred.” But with the help of a Lourdes volunteer we were able to get most of the cushions in the bed and cab of the pickup; then we stuffed every part of Terri’s car but the driver’s seat. If there had been an accident, she was well-protected. The cushions were taken to the PSR Building in St. Paul for inspection and some planning. A few issues had to be addressed:

The cushions needed cleaning. Test washing a couple of covers showed that they would shrink. The next approach was a slow, meticulous hand-cleaning. Terri recruited some more team members [1], but much of the job was done by her in the PSR building.

How would they be secured to the pew seat? Lourdes used a Velcro fastening method that required gluing a mating strip to the pew. We did not want to glue the Velcro. After calling some church furnishing companies, a non-adhesive foam underlay was found. The material is similar to that used at St. Ambrose. While it is rather expensive, some experimentation showed it could be cut to 12”- 15" lengths and distributed along the pews. That saved about half the cost of the underlay and it works well (See “Don’t Move …” below).

Next, was sizing. The 15” width fits our pews well. However, the lengths of most of the pews in our church are either 149” (center church, except pillars); or 111” (outer pews and center at pillars). All of the cushions are about 94” long. Terri determined that there were enough cushions that some could be altered to 55”, and nearly all of the center pews would be fully cushioned [2]. After discussing options and making phone calls, the team located an upholstery seamstress in Stark who agreed to alter the cushions at a reasonable price. She should start doing groups of about ten during mid-August. Altering would be done in a few weeks.

Timing. The PSR Building served the planning and cleaning phase well, but the cushions had to be removed before school began. The team got the go-ahead to install the full-length cushions in the church in late June. Then, the cushions that are to be altered were stored in a large storage closet in the Parish Hall.

If the project goes as planned, all of the cushions will be installed during September. ​

Project Cost.​So what will this stewardship project cost? When completed, the cost will include lots of driving, coordination, phone calls, planning, lifting, cleaning, sweating, moving and a few cuts and scrapes. But the total cost, to be paid by the St. Francis Altar Society, should not exceed $700! Instead of filling only the front bay of pews, there will be enough cushions to fill nearly the entire church. (There has been some discussion about loaves, fishes and cushions!)

A Project Overview Slide-Show:

​Don’t Move The Cushions.Existing spaces in center pews should be filled by September. However, since the first set of cushions entered the church, several have been slid to an opposite end of pews. This can damage the expensive foam underlay and is creating more work for the team. Also, moving a pew cushion to your end of the pew means someone else sits on wood. That is not stewardship.

​Notes:[1] So Far, Terri's Team consists of herself, Rosie Brogan, Jean Diskin, the St. Francis Altar Society and Ron Brogan.

[2] When completed, pews on all of the two center rows will be fully covered with the exception of about 15” on the outside ends of the column pews. There will be a similar end gap on all of the outside (window) pews.

​This is the community website for the St. Francis de Hieronymo and St. Ambrose Catholic Churches in Neosho County, Kansas. Both churches are located in the center of the historic nine-county southeast Kansas area. We share one of the richest Catholic Heritages in Southern Kansas and the Four-State Region. For more information about our churches, history, organizations or programs browse our site including its links.